September 1 2026

September 1, 2026

Sonoma, CA > Kansas City, MO

Good morning and welcome back. We begin our fall excursions with a flight to Kansas City. We are here to seen George and Oliver in a football game. This is the first of 91 days of adventure.

This fall we will be in Praha (Prague) the Capital of the Czech Republic. From which we will take the train to Wien (Vienna) the Capital of Austria. We will fly from Wien to Paris to Torino for a short stay in Torino for Amadea’s birthday. Although, we Serra and Pietro are looking to hold the birthday party in Castione; the small town in the Valtellina where they are building a house.

From Torino we head of Malpensa (Milan’s main airport) to catch a flight to Barcelona, Spain. We will then take a Tauck Tour across Northern Spain to Porto, Portugal. We will return to Barcelona mid-October. We have a few days before our cruise leaves Barcelona, so we are going to take the bus to Andorra. That was Mary gets another country, which will bring her total country count to 69.

We leave Barcelona on the 26th of October and sail for Miami. There only three stops along the way; Malaga, Spain, Funchal, Portugal, and Hamilton, Bermuda. This is just a transit cruise. We arrive in Miami on November 9. Then, without leaving the ship, we head to the flood waters Amazon in Brazil.

Along the way we will stop at Bridgetown, the Capital of Barbados (add one country); The Port of Spain the Capital of Trinidad and Tobago (add one more); Santarém a major municipality and port city in the western part of the state of Pará in northern Brazil about 400 miles up the Amazon from the Atlantic Ocean (add one more); Boca da Valeria which is about 850 miles from the Atlantic Ocean along the lower Amazon, at the easternmost edge of the Amazonas state on the boarder of the state of Pará. Manaus the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, housing over 2.2 million people in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. Manaus is also as far up the Amazon we will go.

On the way back to the Atlantic we will stop in Parintins is the second-largest city in the Amazonas state of Brazil. Then Alter Do Chão not far from Santarém which we will stop at on the way up the Amazon. From there we go to St. George’s, Grenada (another country) and the San Juan, Puerto Rico. So, four more countries for Harry and seven more for Mary. This brings Harry’s total to 79 and Mary’s to 75 countries. Then it is back to Miami and off to Sonoma. The next adventure should begin January 10; however, we don’t know where Christmas 2026 is as of yet.

This adventure began with the Alarm going off at 04:05. We are at the driveway at 05:20 for a 05:30 pickup. Of course, this was the first time the Blacklane driver couldn’t find the address. He called at 05:30 and I walked out the gate and flagged him down. He was just a couple of houses off. The ride to the airport was a mix of napping and the driver talking. He did say that Uber was purchasing Blacklane and changing the name.

We go to SFO just a little before 07:00. Airline service continues to decline. Even first class has to do their own check in and are expected to attach the luggage tags to their bags. From the “bag drop” we headed to TSA Pre-Check. We don’t know why but the put Mary and I in two separate lines. One line was for touchless verification and the other “normal” verification. Basically, the touchless is just walk through and put your bags on the belt for scanning. The time it took to get through security was just a few minutes.

We walked down concourse D and stopped at the Lark Street Grill. It had been several hours, mostly awake, with out any coffee. It was also time to take our morning medication which should be done with food. I ordered eggs, bacon and potatoes and Mary got just some sourdough toast. What they served me for a cappuccino was a major set back for the drink. Mary’s coffee was slightly better.

After breakfast Mary headed to get those trashy magazines, we look at one the plane. I headed to Peet’s to get a cappuccino. Again, at Peet’s, no one to take your order you had to enter it on screen. Sadly, it wasn’t even up to Peet’s normal standards. We headed to the gate. Boarding started on time at 08:20 and we were in our seats by 08:30. The plane took off on time at 08:48.

Most of the flight was spent asleep. They did serve breakfast. A nice bowl of yogurt with blueberry sauce, two types of cheese, prosciutto, salami, and nuts. Surprisingly not bad. We landed in Kansas City at 14:00. Harry IV is picking us up and taking us to the AirB&B near the plaza. We just had to wait a few minutes for him to arrive. We waited and then went to the crub to meet him. The timing was nearly perfect.

There was quite a bit of traffic, fortunately most of it was going in the opposite direction. The AirB&B is just off the Plaza in an apartment building designed in 1923 by Nelle E. Peters. The Whitehall apartment (323 Emanuel Cleaver II Blvd.) building is an eight-story brick building which fits well into the architectural of the Plaza area. We have stayed in this building before. The apartment is on the small side. It is really a studio. It has a nice kitchen, living room, bedroom, closet and bathroom, all in about 400 square feet. It is perfect, we could even imagine living here longer than ten days.

We got settled into the apartment (6C) and Mary took a nap. It is difficult for her to get up at 04:30, let alone getting on the road at 05:30. I wrote in this blog and enjoyed the view to the east across Oak Street and into Frank A. Theis Park. It was all very green.

About 18:00 we headed over to the Plaza for dinner. We decided the easiest and quickest meal would be at the Cheesecake Factory. We shared an order of chicken potstickers (classic Asian pan-fried dumplings with a very light soy-ginger sauce). Mary had the Beet & Avocado Salad (glazed beets, quinoa, avocado, fresh orange slices, arugula, with a honey-yogurt dressing). I simply went with my standard – the Chinese Chicken Salad (a combination of iceberg and romaine lettuce, fried rice noodles, green onions, crispy strips off fried wonton, beans sprouts, Mandarin orange slices, sesame seeds, topped with a plum dressing).

Mary got a slice of pumpkin cheesecake to go and I chose the New York style cheesecake. We walked back to the apartment, put the cheesecakes in the refrigerator and got ready for bed. We were both tired and it was just past 20:00. We got into our PJs and headed to bed, forgetting all about the cheesecake dessert. Not really sure exactly what time we fell asleep, but it was probably before 21:00. Like all travel days, it was seemingly a long day.

Buonanotte & Ciao,

Enrico and Maria